You are currently viewing Being Grateful For FriendshipsPin

Being Grateful For Friendships

Being grateful takes practice, right? Last week, I tried to focus on expressing my gratitude out loud. I can’t say I made huge progress. It felt pretty awkward to be honest, but I’m happy that I took some baby steps. With practice, I can only get better at it!

This week, I am taking some time to reflect on friendships. Good friends are hard to come by. Especially ones that you can be vulnerable with and let all your skeletons escape from your closet. Ones that will love you despite your shortcomings. Ones that will tell you the truth even if it hurts. I’m grateful that I have a few people in my life like that.

Being grateful. expressing gratitude. Robert Brault quotes. Gratefulness. How to be grateful. on gratitude. friendship quotes. quotes on friendship. Being grateful for friends.Pin

This past weekend, we went up to Napa Valley to do wine tastings (Napa post coming soon!), and I got to spend some time with Hsiao. Time with my girlfriends at this stage of life is a precious commodity. Even more precious since Hsiao and I have always been long distance friends. We both went to high school and college in Atlanta and had a lot of mutual friends, but our friendship started when she was moving for work. The first time we spent one-on-one time was on a road trip moving her stuff up the east coast to Boston. Looking back, both of us had worried that it could be a painfully awkward situation since compatible travel companions are also hard to come by. But by the end of the trip, we really connected. It was the beautiful beginning to a long distance friendship.

When she lived in Boston, I was in Germany and Egypt. When she moved to San Francisco, I lived in Atlanta. By the time we moved out to LA, she had moved to back to NYC on the opposite coast. It was only a couple months ago that she moved back to SF and we now live in the same state.. and time zone (for whatever reason, that 3-hour time zone difference can kill relationships)!  I’m thankful that we managed to keep in touch over the years. With enough effort on both sides and some intermittent visits, we made it work! I’m so thankful for the time we got to spend together this past weekend. I’m thankful for her as a friend and for being in my life. I’m thankful for how she teaches me how to be more kind and self-sacrificing.

Before our trip up to Napa, the last time I saw her was at her wedding in August. I snapped a few photos of her while we were taking a break, and finally got around to editing a few:

Being grateful. expressing gratitude. Robert Brault quotes. Gratefulness. How to be grateful. on gratitude. friendship quotes. quotes on friendship. Being grateful for friends.Pin

And here’s one of the two of us!

Being grateful. expressing gratitude. Robert Brault quotes. Gratefulness. How to be grateful. on gratitude. friendship quotes. quotes on friendship. Being grateful for friends.Pin

Being grateful throughout the week:
  1. Didn’t eat out all week in LA last week (for 100 days of less)
  2. Nick Pitera gave us a tour of Pixar Animation Studios. I love love love Pixar!
  3. Finally made a trip up to Napa
  4. Finished reading Divergent & Insurgent. Such fun and easy reads.
  5. I’m always surprised and appreciative of people who want to stay in touch with me long distance.

Gratitude Homework:

  1. Write up to 4 items in a gratitude journal daily
  2. Continue to practice expressing gratitude to others out loud
  3. Brainstorm ways to express my gratitude other than just saying “thank you”

When’s the last time you reflected on gratitude? What are some challenges you’re facing today in practicing gratitude? I know I can be a pretty ungrateful person, so intentionally being grateful takes a lot of practice for me.

This my third week of practicing gratitude. You can see all my other gratitude posts by clicking on the banner:
Week 3 of practicing gratitude.Pin
Follow on BloglovinPin

This Post Has 9 Comments

  1. aw! a photo of some of my 2 favorite people. all you’re mising is the ‘S” in S.H.E. =)

    hhaha you and your to do lists. you even have to assign yourself homework on gratitude… that’s cute =) but it’s good that you’re keeping disciplined. i’d say that’s a realistic way to measure your goals.

    btw, ‘discipline of grace’ is totally kicking my butt. it is such a challenging book!

    1. esther julee

      Aww I don’t feel like we took too many with all three of us on my camera. Yeah, it is really challenging from what I remember. I might need a refresher. Wanna send me what has been challenging? :)

  2. HTC

    Oh man – those were the times. I feel so lucky that God brought us together when we were going through a new chapter in our life. I guess God knew I needed someone to watch over me while I was in a new place. I’m glad that we remained close friends no matter the distance and thanks for always being there for me :) Also I’m super touched by this blog. Love you! xoxo

    1. esther julee

      Yeah, it’s funny how it worked out. We both happened to be in new, foreign places at the same time.

  3. Tidy-Up Gal

    Ah. Friends. I’m at an interesting stage of friendship – a lot of my friends from college have moved out of state and I think the friendship kind of fizzled out on its own. Even though we don’t keep in touch like we used to, I have great memories and for those I am grateful. I don’t make friends easily, and the older I get the pickier I am about whom I share my life with in that way. BUT, I do know the importance of good friends especially in this stage of life.

    1. Tidy-Up Gal

      hit send too soon – I love her bouquet and your hair! :-)

    2. esther julee

      I think I’m the same way! I’m finding myself being pickier and more and more closed off even. It’s been really tough to make friends out in LA. It is just harder to make friends when you’re older, but I know ultimately, I’m the one not making the effort.

      I’m really surprised with the fact that I could even keep any of my friends this long. haha I have a strange view on friendship that I haven’t been able to shake since I moved almost every year when I was a kid. I can say that I put some work into keeping these few friendships I have going.. but it’s minimal at most. I’m just thankful that they put in a lot of effort to stay in touch and didn’t give up on me.

      I think we all lose friends as we move into diff stages of life. But I also know that at those different stages of life, friendships can be “for the time being” and come and go… which I have a difficult time with. Hurts sometimes to invest in something that is so temporary.

      1. Tidy-Up Gal

        I don’t make as much effort as I’d like either, especially, like you said, into something that may be temporary. Definitely a life lesson and opportunity for growth on my part because really nothing is permanent!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.